Creating competitive bidding is far more effective than the commonly used wholesale buyer approach.

By Mark Van Ness

Can you start a company with no debt, no private equity investors, and no initial public offering strategy and grow it to be one of the top 10 companies in your industry — all with a strategy of collaborating with all your competitors?

At the age of 30, that’s what I set out to do. Today, SVN is the trusted advisor on over $20 billion a year in commercial real estate transactions — that’s about a deal every hour, 24/7. Perhaps our story will inspire you to see your competitors in a completely new light.

Imagine what it would be like to be trusted by all your competitors. Now, picture the power of mobilizing every one of your competitors to increase the value that you bring to your clients. This strategy enabled SVN to quickly grow into a top 10 commercial real estate services firm, first locally, then regionally and nationally.  

I had previously led a turnaround for a typical investment real estate company that looked at its business as a zero-sum game. Like everyone else in the industry, the company did its best to keep the competition from selling its listings in an attempt to retain the entire commission. I saw countless listings expire or sell for less than they were worth with this all-or-nothing policy, and I realized that there was a better way than this very limited, dual-agency approach. 

SVN was founded on the client-first principle of sharing our fee with the procuring broker with the best offer. Yes, it means we sometimes make less so that our clients can make more. Our clients appreciate that, and their loyalty and referrals have placed SVN among the Real Leaders Top Impact Companies and Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies several times. 

This concept of making more by making less per transaction can work in other industries as well.

Investment bankers, for example, operate under the same limited competition model with high fees and underwhelming results. By increasing the demand and the number of retail bidders, anyone can increase the sales price of their assets. An enterprising young entrepreneur could disrupt that industry today. This is the basic law of supply-and-demand at work. The more qualified buyers you have, the higher the competition for your asset, so the higher the price and terms you will achieve.  

A few years ago, we put this fundamental strategy to the test. We commissioned an academic study of nearly 15,000 commercial real estate sales over a 10-year period. When the buyer was represented by a different brokerage company than the seller, they generated a 9.6% higher price, on average, than those kept in-house with the same brokerage company representing the buyer and seller. 

It makes sense that no one company can have trusted relationships with the hundreds of thousands of ultra-high-net-worth investors plus millions of high-net-worth investors. And no one brokerage company represents more than a tiny fraction of the market. In fact, the top 10 brokerage companies combined only represented 10% of the transactions last year. That’s why the SVN strategy of collaborating with our competitors to create competitive bidding for our clients has been far more effective than the wholesale buyer approach that the majority of the industry practices.

This strategy would be easy to duplicate, and we only expected a two-year edge before competitors copied us. But 37 years later, they’re still stuck operating in the shortsighted, outdated model from the last century. Meanwhile, SVN has risen from a startup to the youngest player in the top 10 companies in its field. To us, this proves that if you actually deliver more value to your clients and customers, they will beat a path to your door. And if you can find a way to collaborate with your competitors for the benefit of your clients, magic happens. 

SVN’s Core Covenants

A company’s core values provide clarity on what is truly important for organizational success, personal and professional conduct, and what to expect from each other. SVN’s Core Covenants personify its values and culture and differentiate it from the competition.

As members of the SVN Shared Value Network, each employee commits to do the following:

•  Create amazing value with their clients, colleagues, and community. 
•  Cooperate proactively and place their clients’ best interests above their own. 
•  Include, respect, and support all members of the commercial real estate industry. 
•  Honor their commitments. 
•  Personify and uphold the SVN brand. 
•  Resolve conflicts quickly, positively, and effectively.
•  Take personal responsibility for achieving their own potential. 
•  Excel in their market area and specialty. 
•  Focus on the positive and the possible. 
•  Nurture their career while valuing 
• the importance of family, health, 
• and community.

For more on SVN’s Core Covenants, visit https://bit.ly/3H4ypc4.

Download SVN’s 9.6% Report on the pricing advantage of cooperation at https://bit.ly/4aUB0TJ.

Why have over 13,000 businesses (including Real Leaders) already joined the U.N. Global Compact in support of the new 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030? The answer is not what you might expect. Real Leaders founder Mark Van Ness sat down with U.N. Global Compact Executive Director Lise Kingo in New York to discuss how and why so many business leaders have begun making the success of humanity their business. Here are some of the highlights.

When we think of someone whose mission is to save humanity, we typically think of some fictional superhero with muscles bulging beneath brightly colored outfits. But Lise Kingo is not your stereotypical superhero. She’s a real leader with a job that would intimidate most people; mobilize the business leaders of the world to take immediate action to save humanity from self-destruction. Can you imagine her job-interview: “Can you give me an example of how you saved a species from extinction in your previous position?” Most of us would respond: “Er, can I get back to you on that?” But Lise Kingo appears confident, capable and compassionate in the face of seemingly unrealistic expectations. And a 2030 deadline. She’s bringing 25 years of business experience to a sector previously dominated by NGO’s and government agencies.

Amazingly, Kingo won’t be looking for business to give more. Instead, she’s presenting business leaders with the biggest business opportunities of their lifetimes. Over seven billion people are desperate for solutions to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, solutions that will benefit everyone on the planet to varying degrees. The companies that come up with the most effective solutions will have access to billions of new customers and the subsequent profits. Huge business opportunities exist in each of these goals, from clean water and sanitation to sustainable communities and education. And if the profit motivator isn’t enough, Kingo points out the added benefit of: “leaving our children a world we can be proud of.”

For the skeptics out there, Unilever and McKinsey and Company have produced a report to show how achieving the Global Goals can add to the global economy and what the consequences will be if we choose to ignore them. After all, survival of the species is not enough for many people; they need to see the economic impact. This short-sighted view overlooks the devastating impact of conflict, climate disasters, forced migration and the resulting political and business uncertainty that results from the failure to anticipate social needs. This world view is also rapidly becoming obsolete, as leaders recognize the value and critical importance of far-sighted leadership.

For some reason, it took us thousands of years to realize that our species could benefit from agreeing on a set of long-term objectives for the joint success of humanity. Imagine the chaos that would ensue in an organization without clear objectives. That has been our world.

In 2000, the first eight goals were launched as the Millennium Development Goals with a 15 year horizon. Click here to see the success of those goals. These goals were replaced in 2015 by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s or Global Goals).

The idea, originally put forward by former Secretary-General Kofi Anan in Davos in 2000, was to create an ongoing campaign between business and the U.N., in the hope that companies would begin to align their strategies and operations with universal principles: human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. The idea to establish global goals for humanity, just as you would for any successful organization, began 15 years ago with the Millennium Development Goals, an eight-point blueprint that focused on meeting the needs of the world’s poorest.

Lise Kingo with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“While the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were good from a developmental perspective, they were created in the basement of the U.N. (in 2000) and had no intention of involving business, or the rest of the world,” says Kingo.

“Our principles were developed after a wide consultation with companies, civil society and governments and I think we ended up with a fair reflection of what the people of the world want,” explains Kingo.

With a Master of Science in Responsibility & Business Practice and a Bachelor of Commmerce in Marketing Economics, Kingo is uniquely positioned to see the best of both worlds. “We needed to launch the concept of the SDGs like a company would launch a new product,” she says. To achieve this, Kingo hauled out an old marketing strategy from her studies, that stressed the need for raising awareness, interest, desire and action in a product.

This strategy has resulted in the “Making Global Goals Local Business” campaign, that now has over 80 networks across the globe, each of which follows guidelines in a playbook that demonstrates how to organise local events with local companies.

While the U.N. is not yet under threat from being overrun by the business world, a start has been made. Each year business delegates from around the world will be meeting in New York to discuss how best to advance societal goals through business.

“We’re encouraging all companies to use the new goals to set a new direction for their business. It’s a way of managing risk while utilising opportunities,” says Kingo.

She wants to include both big and small companies and thinks that small companies are presently too invisible.  “They are the ones that will be the medium or big companies of the future and we want to demonstrate that they too can make a major difference.”

Kingo believes leadership starts with small, individual steps and she is influenced by a good friend, Professor Gareth Jones from the London Business School, who wrote the book ‘Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?

“Jones’ definition of leadership is, ‘be yourself – more,’ and I really like that,” explains Kingo.  “It means that if you want to be a leader you must continue to be yourself, not turn into someone else’s expectation of success. If you have points of view or special capabilities make them even more visible for your employees and stakeholders – don’t be afraid to say what you mean and don’t be afraid to take action and start something dramatic.”

This approach may be okay for the already converted, but how do you motivate companies that are clueless about sustainability, or might not even care?

Kingo’s attitude is that new business opportunities and profit will always be an attraction to entrepreneurs, regardless of the cause. “If we explain to companies how the new goals can help them create innovation and grow new market opportunities, then we move away from the ‘please help the U.N.’ message – which you can forget about. There must be something in it for business – a business plan. We also need to look our children and grandchildren in the eye one day without feeling we have failed them,” she says.

Kingo is out to create an army of business “pioneers” who will spread success stories far and wide. As the business arm of the U.N. she feels a special responsibility to translate the feel-good words of a charter into actionable items that any business person can understand.

“We have no plan B, and if we don’t achieve these goals in 15 years’ time, the world will basically be a wreck,” warns Kingo. “Look at the current data on poverty, refugees, how many countries are at war, environmental liquidation, how the temperature of the planet is increasing and the looming water crisis – we need to act now.”

The United Nations Global Compact has made the private sector a central focus of its ongoing commitment to solving the world’s pressing problems. 

“With less than 4,000 days to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 deadline, there is urgent need for greater ambition and action from the global business community, and this year’s UNGA is the perfect moment to engage,” said UN Global Compact CEO & Executive Director Lise Kingo.

“The UN Global Compact is excited to engage a diverse group of business leaders at our inaugural CEO Roundtable, annual UN Private Sector Forum and our Leaders Summit, as we will release new tools this year to enable greater private sector support for the SDGs.”

Kingo welcomed the partnership of their global membership, and the new private sector leaders who had already committed to their Ten Principles for responsible business.

In 2015, the 193 members of the United Nations agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development — known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  If these Global Goals are achieved, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030 — and Governments are calling on private actors to be a part of the solution. The SDGs represent the most ambitious global development agenda in history and a tremendous opportunity to create a global movement for sustainable business.

This year’s UNGA will largely focus on progress to date on the SDGs, as well as the road forward to reaching these goals by 2030. The UN Global Compact, which plays a vital role in facilitating strategic partnership between the United Nations and the private sector in support of UN values and responsible business.